BITS Pilani

BITS Pilani Prof.Aruna Malapati

Hyderabad Campus Department of CSIS
 BITS Pilani
Hyderabad Campus

Syntax Analysis / Parser

Today’s Learning Objectives

• List the functions of a Parser

• Perform grammar transformations

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Parser

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Where Are We?

Source code: if (b==0) a = “Hi”;

Lexical Analysis

Token Stream: if ( b == 0)a = “Hi”;

Syntactic Analysis
Abstract Syntax Tree
if
(AST)
Semantic Analysis
== = ;

b 0 a “Hi”
Do tokens conform to the language syntax?
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Functions of Syntax Analysis

• Test for membership of w belongs to L(G).

• Additional functionalities

• Generate parse trees

• Handle errors if the string does not belong to the

language.

• Form of the grammar is not important

• Many grammars generate the same language.

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What syntax analysis cannot
do?
• To check whether variables are of types on which
operations are allowed.

• To check whether a variable has been declared before

use.

• To check whether a variable has been initialized.

• These issues will be handled in semantic analysis.

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Limitations of regular
languages
• How to describe language syntax precisely and
conveniently. Can regular expressions be used?

• Many languages are not regular for example string of

balanced parentheses.
• ((((.))))

• {(i)i|i=0}

• There is no regular expression for this language.

Syntax definition - Context free grammars

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Syntax definition

• Context free grammars is a four tuple <V,T,P,S>

– a finite set of non terminal symbols / Variables (V)
– A finite set of terminals (T) V ∩ T = Φ
– a finite set of productions of the form A -> w where A € V and w € ( V U T)*
– a start symbol / Variable (S) S € V

• A parser derives strings by beginning with start symbol and

repeatedly replacing a non terminal by the right hand side of
a production for that non terminal.

• The strings that can be derived from the start symbol of a

grammar G from the language L(G) defined by the grammar.

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Derivation

list -> list + digit | list - digit | digit

digit -> 0 | 1 | . | 9

Consists of the language which is a list of digit separated

by + or -.
Therefore, the string 9-5+2 belongs to the language
specified by the grammar.
list -> list + digit
-> list - digit + digit
-> digit - digit + digit The name context free comes from the fact
-> 9 - digit + digit
that use of a production X does not depend
on the context of X.
-> 9 - 5 + digit
-> 9 - 5 + 2

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Derivation

• If in a sentential form only the leftmost non terminal is

replaced then it becomes leftmost derivation.

• Every leftmost step can we written as wAγ ->lm* wδγ,

where w is a string of terminals and A-> δ is a
production.

• Similarly rightmost derivation can also be defined

accordingly when the rightmost non terminal is replaced.

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Parse tree

• It shows how the start symbol of a grammar derives a

string in the language.
• Root is labeled by the start symbol.
• Leaf nodes are labeled by tokens.

• Each internal node is labeled by a non terminal.

• if A is a non-terminal labeling an internal node and x 1 , x
2 , .x n are labels of children of that node then A à x 1 x 2
. x n is a production.

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Ambiguity
• A Grammar can have more than one parse tree for a
string.

• Consider grammar
string -> string + string | string - string | 0 | 1 | . | 9

• String 9-5+2 has two parse trees

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Ambiguity

• Ambiguity is problematic because meaning of the

programs can be incorrect.

• Ambiguity can be handled in several ways.

– Enforce associativity and precedence.

– Rewrite the grammar (cleanest way).

• There are no general techniques for handling ambiguity.

• It is impossible to convert automatically an ambiguous

grammar to an unambiguous one.

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Example

• String of balanced parentheses

S -> ( S ) S | ε

• For example, consider the string: (( )). It can be derived

as:

S -> (S) S Replacing inner S with (S)S

S -> ((S)S) S Replacing all S with Empty
S -> (())

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Parsing

• Process of determination whether a string can be

generated by a grammar.

• Parsing falls in two categories:

– Top-down parsing:

• Construction of the parse tree starts at the root (from the start symbol) and
proceeds towards leaves (token or terminals)

– Bottom-up parsing:

• Constructions of the parse tree starts from the leaf nodes (tokens or terminals of
the grammar) and proceeds towards root (start symbol) 1.

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The Parsing Problem

• Two categories of parsers

– Top down - Construction of the parse tree starts at the root (from the start
symbol) and proceeds towards leaves (token or terminals) Order is that of a
leftmost derivation.

• Does a preorder traversal of tree

– node then branches

– Branches followed left-to-right

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Top-down parsing

S –> AB
A –> aA | ε S
B –> b | bB
A B

Here is a top-down parse of aaab. a A b

S
a A
AB S –> AB
aAB A –> aA
a A
aaAB A –> aA
aaaAB A –> aA
aaaεB A –> ε ϵ
aaab B –> b

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The Parsing Problem

• Bottom up - Construction of the parse tree starts from

the leaf nodes (tokens or terminals of the grammar) and
proceeds towards root (start symbol)

• Order is that of the reverse of a rightmost

derivation

• Parsers look only one token ahead in the input

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Bottom - Up parsing
E→T+E|T
T → int * T | int | (E)

Consider the string: int * int + int

Bottom-up parsing reduces a string to the start symbol
by inverting productions:

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Take home message
• Parsing checks if tokens conform to the language
syntax?

• Often generates parse trees or an error if the input string

does not confirm.

• Grammar Transformations help in improving

performance of parser.

• Top down parsers cannot handle left recursive grammar

and grammars with common prefixes.

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